I Could Have © TonyFallon090418

I Could Have © TonyFallon090418

I could have gone to college but I had to go to High School at night
I always rode the subway there and for supper had a junk food bite
Mc Donald's was not too healthy but it was all I could afford
And I overheard my guts rumbling as I did math on the black board
My uncle said you are going nowhere without an education
And you have to get a High School Diploma for a firm foundation
He said with extra education you can have clean hands and riches
Or you can wear hob nail boots or wellingtons and go digging ditches
Long summer evenings I would be in class while all my friends enjoyed sports
Up in Cortland Park playing football or hurling in jerseys and shorts
When there would be an important game some of them would be complaining
That I always got to play even though I never showed for training
The manager who knew about me said there's room for "A Professor"
He reminded them as a goalie I kept away the oppressor
The classes moved on and after some exams the teacher was impressed
And he said that while I lacked hours I could sit for the two day State test
When I left the test center that night there only remained the proctor
I passed somehow but the last in a medical is still called doctor
If I wasn't a Pioneer I think on that weekend I would have drank
Days later with that paper I got a new job with Chemical Bank
Home in Ireland my mother was so proud she'd tell everyone she'd meet
That her son was a banker in America working on Wall Street.
I have my own place in Catskills now and my wife is oft is stitches
When she sees me a mile away fixing up the boundary ditches